Assistant U.S. Attorney Jake Banks gets re-assigned to New Orleans to follow his ex-girl friend, FBI Special Agent Kitty Douglas, working on a federal task force to stop the flood of assault weapons from the Port of New Orleans to drug cartels in Mexico. Riding in an NOPD patrol car, Jake encounters Cuban-born Ignacio Torres, a Santeria priest and sorcerer, mystical leader of Los Cuervos, a cult-like gang smuggling thousands of weapons out of the port. Torres kills the two cops hosting Jake's ride along, but mysteriously allows Jake to walk away. Jake works with NOPD detectives and Kitty's FBI task force to locate Torres and his drug-smuggling cult, but Los Cuervos and the sorcerer become the hunters, pursuing Jake and Kitty on the gritty streets of N.O. Kitty survives a horrendous assault by Los Cuervos, and Jake disappears. His father, Mississippi District Attorney Willie Mitchell Banks, and David Dunne, Jake's mentor and leader of the covert Domestic Operations Group (DOGs), arrive in N.O. They search the dark corners of the French Quarter to find Los Cuervos and the sorcerer Torres, but whether they can save Jake is not resolved until the thrilling final pages of THE RIDE ALONG.